The developer of a 23-home subdivision on Ansonia’s Castle Lane has appealed the Planning and Zoning Commission’s rejection of the project last November.
About 50 people packed the Ansonia City Hall meeting room for a public hearing on the proposal last September, most of whom opposed the development of a 14-acre parcel between Gardners Lane, Castle Lane and North Prospect Street Extension.
Hearings on the project continued until November, when commissioners denied the application.
According to minutes of the meeting at which the application was denied, Planning and Zoning Commission members raised concerns about traffic and public safety on nearby Castle Lane Road, as well as comments made by Oswald Inglese, a consultant to the commission, in a memo dated five days before the denial.
The seven-page appeal, filed in Superior Court in Milford last December by Castle Lane Developers LLC, said the commission “acted illegally, arbitrarily, and in abuse of the discretion vested in it by law” when it denied the controversial proposal.
Among the reasons given, the appeal says:
- The commission denied the application based on traffic concerns regarding roads outside the property
- The commission based its decision on factors not contained in its regulations
- The commission didn’t record the meeting at which the application was denied
- The commission accepted and relied on Inglese’s report even though it was submitted after the close of the public hearing on the application.
The appeal asks that a judge declare the commission’s denial null and void, and that the court order the commission to approve the subdivision.
Reached by cell phone Thursday, Mark Romano, the developer, said he hasn’t heard any news in the case since the appeal was filed.
An order in the case dated Feb. 24 set some filing deadlines in the matter.
“I wish it would happen quicker, because we’re out of work and we’d love to get back to work,” he said. “These things take time.”
A message was left with Romano’s lawyer Thursday.
